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Thursday, February 18, 2010

Lost - Locke And Sawyer's Excellent Adventure

In 2004, Locke gets fired from his job - his immediate supervisor had discovered that he skipped the Sydney, Australia conference the company paid for him to attend. On his way out he meets Hurley, who owns the box company.

Hurley writes a note for one of his other companies to find Locke a new job. The supervisor of that firm happens to be Rose Nadler. Locke requests a construction foreman's job, but Rose convinces him to seek something more realistic - hinting loud and clear that a wheelchair is too great an impediment on a construction site. He agrees to work as a substitute teacher; on his first day at the job he meets another teacher in the teacher's lounge - Ben Linus.

On the island, the real Locke is buried in the Lostaways' cemetery - where Ben confesses to murdering him. Earlier he denied killing Jacob - he lied and said the fake Locke did it. (Maybe he sees his answer as half true.) After the burial, Ben, Ilana, Sun and Lapidus head for the temple.

Two interesting details: Ilana has gathered some of Jacob's ashes into a pouch, and she says that the Man in Black (how he is known in Lost lore - he wore black in the Season 5 finale) is "stuck" in Locke's visage when in human form.

After a chat with Richard Alpert, the fake Locke heads to the Barracks and talks Sawyer into going out for a walk. Sawyer can tell he's not really Locke, because he could always sense the original's fear.

They both see a boy in the jungle; "Locke" had seen him earlier, when talking with Richard. He chases after him, and finds the boy alone, who warns him that the "rules" prevent him from killing Sawyer. Meanwhile, Richard finds Sawyer alone. Before "Locke" can return, he warns that "Locke" wants all the Lostaways dead.

Later on, Sawyer threatens the imposter with a gun, alluding to the finale to Of Mice And Men. "Locke" says Steinbeck is after his time. He also says that he was once a normal man; Sawyer doesn't believe it.

They descend bamboo and rope ladders - Sawyer having a close brush with death as his ladder breaks - and find a cave, where names prefixed by numbers are scribbled on a ceiling. All but the following have been crossed out:

4 Locke8 Reyes15 Ford16 Jarrah23 Shephard42 Kwon

The Man in Black crosses out Locke's name. He claims that Jacob is responsible for the writings and for killing off the Lostaways.

He tells Sawyer he has three choices: do nothing, replace Jacob as the island's guardian, or leave the island with the Man in Black. Sawyer picks Door Number Three.